20211009 Stopping Almon's 30,000 year plan

Stardate 26-5-12731 or Atunda, 26 Nelona, 12731
 
Berka shared much info on the locals at Chalcedon and the new Freedworlds Republic.
 
When we jumped out of hyperspace, we found a combat above the planet between a Bloodsmith Raider Nebulon A class Frigate, dropping many dropships to the planet's surface. The opposition is a crude alliance of Alliance of Worlds, Galactic Empire, and even the Spartan Imperium alongside the planetary defenses of Capital Ships of Chalcedon (with Tie Fighters and Y-wings). Also, the Kylo's Star is in the frey.
 
I used the Shadowhawk's sensors to passively count the identities of the combatants. It was set to full-power active ping from the last time I used it, so all pilots were disoriented by the intense noise. Berka used the distraction to change our identity to align with the raiders and hide among their flock.
 
I whipped up a learning program for optimization of shields and uploaded it to R3-TX. The noble little droid did a fine job with the shields as all combatants on all sides fired at us while Berka dropped us directly toward the planet. Particularly the Bloodsmith raiders did not appreciate our attempt to side with them before shooting two of them.
 
As we plummeted in relative safety toward the planet, I performed a focused scan of a number of drop ships unloading their heavy ground assault vehicles toward the capital city of Port Etmar.
 
https://discord.com/channels/518592094009425931/896493377951002634/896526635673735208
 
War machines and skiffs abound, and armored troop carriers.
 
With no encryption, I transmitted an image of the ground fight on an insecure channel like a good journalist might do if there were one present who was not running for his/her life.
 
Another notable phenomenon was that northeast of the capital, (remember the attacking forces landed to the east of the capital city) stand the ruins of an ancient temple identified as the "Infinite Temple" from which a beam of light and energy ran upward into the sky, through a ring station in geosynchronous orbit at the exact spot to observe closely the rift in space-time which caused so much consternation since that ship detonated in hyperspace here.
 
None other than Dame Vanya Ysadora spoke on the Bloodsmith Raider communication channels, claiming that a Mentat virus was in their cybernetic computer systems which upon a certain command would make them melt down. She also said that their known ancient enemy was being forced to fight them by a mind-controlling parasite, which she has the ability to remove, freeing them from the mind control.
 
As we approach the space port, I noticed two Bloodsmith Raider fighters flying a scanning route around the Infinite Temple. I know Almon would be interested in that ancient site, and he has at least one bounty hunter and one pirate in his employ. They will head there using the attack as cover, or perhaps after the noise dies down and security is more lax.
 
I met Chancellor Canter and gifted her my Force Shield Belt, securing her as a social contact. I will contact her later about Empeeror Gregor's appointment and perhaps repair the impending debacle that will be known ass Ambassador Countess Cordelia Vorkosigan, Danar's aunt, a tall, redheaded former (Corellian?) soldier.
 
With the Chancelor's permission, I uploaded to the repair droids a program which helps a droid acoustically detect vynocs on a ship or an armored troop carrier. It recommends that droids pass this program along to other repair droids. It contains an Mentat-style imbedded trojan horse virus which will self activate in a few hours and search for other imbedded Mentat-style trojan horse viruses and make them more easy to detect even with old anti-virus software. That way any Bloodsmith Raiders who search their systems will find what the Jedi said they would find.
 
I met Dame Vanya, and another Jedi and what looked like a Crimson Knight, who I had thought were extinct as of the last few days, but there was one here, so I mentioned that he might be a chink in the armor of Almon's plan.
 
We spoke briefly, then split up. Vanya and a woman from the Medusa biker gang (perhaps a pilot also) and myself took on the troops attacking the city.
 
We had a very productive and quick discussion and landed upon a strategy. The Medusa and I took aim at the forelegs of one of the walking armored troop carriers. She with her blaster, and I with my electro-nuclear magnet and a stray mortar shell the Freedmen were firing at it. We stopped the one for the moment. It soon appeared that the Freedmen were firing pounding devices which worked fairly well as launched bettering rams, but also attracted the attention of four Orooks, five-story tall worms with beaks and tentacles. I managed to magnetically pull the safety goggles off of one of the drivers of a sand skiff and she shot at the other driver, causing him to abandon the steering.
 
As the Orooks swarmed and devoured the machines, or at least sunk them under the sands, all the Freedmen pulled their wounded to safety from the sandy battlefield. Many of the attacking Raiders ran to relative safety under Vanya's offer to surrender and live. Those weren't her exact words, but basically that was what happened.
 
Also, among the Freedmen was a woman named Satina, who wielded two large metallic fans like light sabers. Interesting.
 
Vanya assured me that the Orooks were actually sentient, with a language of their own, and quite very intelligent. Fascinating. This planet definitely bears further study.